User blog comment:MochiMustache/Yays and Nays of DmC/@comment-775152-20120608181215/@comment-976055-20120909155132

You should check out that DmC Findings blogpost I have. It's got the controls and all that, extrapolated from watching streams, and talking to my buddy who got to play it at a conference.

I was skeptical about the lack of Hard Lock at first too, but when Tameem explained it, it made sense, because now that they've remapped abilities, makes everything much more fluid. I recently replayed DMC3 a bit, and I found myself "locked down" as much as I was using the Lock On. It's nice that in DmC I'll be able to freely sweep around between targets, and be able to dodge specifically where I want without my orientation being forced by a Lock feature. I know Trickster can let me do that, but the guy who plays the streams (who is a die hard DMC fan and is in love with DmC) says that while the Syle system was cool, it reduces your options, while DmC keeps so much at your fingertips, and that resonates with how I feel too. I like that DmC is making sure I have as much options and freedom to go crazy with combos as I can. I know there's something to be said for having too much freedom, but it's better (and easier) to scale yourself back, than to constantly wish you had more options. Going back to DMC3/4, it was also a little clunky now compared to DmC's controls, especially for an aerial combo, having to use completely different buttons to attack on the ground and launch, and then to combo in the air and then drop. It's just more consistent in DmC, and I like that. I'd say, Anobi, that it'll be okay. Plenty of action games have done extremely well without a hard lock feature, and from everything that I've seen played, it works out well here too n.n

Although, yeah, DMC2's lock-on system was...weird. It was an "always targeting" and then you had to hold R1 to lock on better, or hold R2 to turn the lock on off entirely. Didn't work too well >.<

The swearing is a bit much for me, too, but Ao Kusanagi said it best with how Dante's upbringing shaped him. I did laugh, though, when Poison asked who he was, and Dante said "I'm your prom date you ugly sack of shit!"